The present invention relates generally to traverse winding machines for automatic winding of a filament or strip about a rotating form, and in particular to a traverse winding machine providing improved high-speed operation.
Traverse Winding machines are used in a variety of industrial applications, including the winding of filamentous or ribbon-like materials on a spool for storage, the winding of reinforcement materials around forms and vessels, and the manufacture of electrical devices using coils of conductive material.
Generally, winding machines have an arbor rotating about an axis so that material may be wound about the arbor or around a form attached to the arbor. The material to be wrapped around the form is guided to move back and forth along the axis of the arbor to distribute the material evenly over the length of the form during the winding process.
Extremely precise winding distribution can be obtained using modern electronic motor drives. A first motor drive may be used to turn the arbor and a second motor drive may be used to control the position of the material transversely along the axis. The first and second motor drive may be electronically “locked” so that there is a fixed relationship between rotational speed of the arbor and translating speed of the material. In this way, a precise pitch of the wound material may be ensured despite variations in the arbor speed that normally occur to accommodate the changing effective diameter of the form as material is wound upon it.
Using such motor drive systems, the operator may enter particular machine parameters into an industrial controller operating in conjunction with the motor drives. The operator may, for example, enter the linear rate of wound material or its desired tension, the limits of transverse motion of the material on the form, the pitch of material to be applied to the form, and the maximum amount of material to be applied to the form, etc. The industrial controller may then automatically operate the motor drives to move the arbor and the position of the material on the form in a coordinated manner to produce the desired pitch and total winding amount. As the material reaches the limits of transverse motion, the defined pitch is reversed without slowing down the arbor so as to preserve tension relationships on the material being wound on the form and to provide the maximum winding rate.
When the material to be wound is obtained from another process, for example a slitting machine or the like, the position of the wound material with respect to the axis of the arbor may be changed by moving the arbor itself in a reciprocating fashion along its axis. In this way the wound material may follow a straight path from a previous machine or process to the arbor.